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Remote Work’s Ancient History
We have this idea that remote work is new. It is thousands of years old. While the tools today may be different, the practice is ancient.
In the cool of the Egyptian desert morning, before the unbearable heat of the day would blast down, a camel’s shadow shrouded the cave of Saint Anthony bringing a reed scroll. It had been sent by the desert mother, Great Amma Syncletica the day before. They were sharing some ideas. Collaborating. They were the Desert Fathers and Mothers of the 3rd century CE.
Today, that message might be an email or a Slack post. I doubt though, that emojis were used. They were also remote working.
Similar stories played out with the hermits of Ireland centuries later. Or even today with the Hindu Kumbh. Their cells carved into cliff faces or adapted natural caves or built from rough stone were the first remote offices. The biggest downside probably being no coffee services.
While we may think that remote work is something new and novel to the digital age, it is not. In fact, we may be looking at remote work in entirely the wrong way. For today, remote work is often seen through the lens of scientific management, Taylorism, measure by keystrokes and outputs, pomodoro techniques and other largely pointless…
